To the Jermyn Street Theatre last night for Footfalls & Rockaby, a Beckett double bill. In Footfalls, Charlotte Emmerson paces the stage alone interacting with Siân Phillips' disembodied voice. In Rockaby Sian Phillips sits alone, interacting with her own disembodied voice.
The latter was especially moving for me. We have an hour or so every Saturday morning with our own seated mother over Skype. "More," breathes Phillips live in the piece to her own recording of herself. I take that to mean that the character, though reduced, wasn't done yet and got some consolation from it.
Siân Phillips is 88. She married Peter O'Toole in 1959, the year before my mum and dad tied the knot. We saw her in Under Milk Wood at the National in the first post lockdown theatre I attended.
Also (and I only add it here as it doesn't seem to have been recorded in the 'blog before) I saw her in Marlene at the Richmond Theatre in - I guestimate - 1997.
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